I'm a sucker for chocolate covered strawberries. They are oh-so-tasty, and simple to make as well that it's a perfect treat for any occasion. In fact, last year, I decided to hand out tins of chocolate covered strawberries instead of the traditional christmas cookies. They were a big hit. Who doesn't like strawberries dipped in chocolate?
But today I realized I may have been doing this simple thing all wrong.
Did you know you have to "temper" your chocolate? I had no idea what that meant. I had to look it up here.
Turns out there's a science to melting chocolate. Chocolate usually comes tempered. When you heat it up you are breaking the crystals in the chocolate and causing them to not align properly. This is why you have to temper it by varying the temperature while melting it to make sure they come together nicely again to give you that nice snap and shine that Klondike bars usually have. I also found that the chocolate that I've been using, Nestle chocolate chips, are all wrong. Chocolate chips have additives in them to keep their shape when you're baking them in cookies. They are nearly impossible to temper.
Here is a photo tutorial to making little strawberry tuxedos for your next dinner party. Try not to eat them all in the process!
Temper your white chocolate
Wash and THOROUGHLY dry your strawberries
(Otherwise the chocolate won't stick to them)
Stick a skewer in there for easy handling and dunk strawberry
Let white chocolate completely dry (15 min..ish)
Temper dark chocolate
Dunk strawberries in an angle on both sides.
Take a pastry bag and with a #3 tip pipe bow ties and buttons
What do you mean you don't have a pastry bag and a #3 tip?
Pour the chocolate in a ziploc bag and cut a small hole on the side.
I put them in the strawberry container with mini
strawberry rhubarb pies I made. Super cute gift:
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